ANCIENT DAYS, RUNNING WAYS

An Oglala Sioux named Brooke Medicine Eagle once said, “Being Indian is an attitude, a state of mind, a way of being in harmony with all things and all beings. It is allowing the heart to be the distributor of energy on this planet; to allow feelings and sensitivities to determine where energy goes; bringing aliveness up from the Earth and from the Sky, putting it in and giving it out from the heart.”   It seems there is now no question at all of our ambition as long distance runners seems to revolve around these thoughts.

It would be safe to say that through recent days I have been thinking about what people; such as you and I; were up to on the same land we run.  That is, what the people of ancient days were up to, and how they lived.  I wonder how their need which circled around a nomadic lifestyle has translated through time to the need which exists within our own distance running blood.  Efficiency has never been something new, and never been something which has gone out of style.  The items above are items I have recently found while running in woodland near my home!

Artifacts, such as these, fuel an internal fire to unify my nomadic design… to explore our commonality as human beings.  Even more than finding these historic “tools”, the very knowledge of their location and the evidence of Native American being, thrusts my consciousness into a shared existence as I run through the NC woodland. 

The land you and I run, and the earth we cover, has always been shared… or should have been.  The land we know was well set with human life and design far before this post-modern society now.  These people were in every respect, just as we are… possibly much more simple.  Tribes were nomadic and traveling long distances afoot was second nature.  They were loving, caring, industrious, creative, noble and intelligent.  Here in the States they were the Native Americans… and they were long distance runners! 

Now I run better through these woods I know and through the trails I sift along.  For these people have been here before I.  They were under our feet before we acknowledge them, and lived with such great effect!  They had balance and order and passion for life as they lived it.  They even had true and noble example for post-modern man.  Yes, they had no industry, no “might" and possessed no technology in comparison… yet these are NOT they which make a man!

A man is made beautiful by his own expression of living and NEVER by the greatness of his possessions.   

So, let’s remember together the feet which have run the land we run and the lives that have passed this way before us.  Together we can embrace the humility required to explore and admire the expression of their lives… if for only one reason: they found the essence to sustain their lives and culture, with beautiful balance and surviving order, for multiplied thousands of years!  In contrast, we have now ourselves to face most dire struggle, disunity, human despair,  unrestrained hatred and greed… all in the modern space of two to three hundred years!  Ouch!

There is something great to be gained in the study of good peoples’ lives.  Running this land, as the Native Americans did, is my beginning.  Distance running is a celebration of our primitive design.  Doing so with heart and thought… with empathy… is an enhancement to our humanity.  Now go and cover your land with joy and with LIFE!

Consistency of LIFE & RUNNING

I believe we all think about the improvement of life quite a bit... especially the distance runners.  However, the nature of someone who favors holistic distance running is to not ONLY to "think" about improvement in life or in running, yet to within their running expression, ACT towards seeing improvement come to pass!  These two quotes from Leo Tolstoy's, The Law of Love, will be great to join the following thoughts...

If only instead of wishing to save the world, people looked to save themselves, to liberate themselves rather than humanity, they would be doing so much more for the salvation of the world and the freedom of humanity. ~ Herzen

In both personal and public life there is only one law: if you wish to improve life, be prepared to sacrifice it. ~ UA

It is amazing to me how much time the average distance runner thinks about the days they get to run... the consistency of their running... even how many days they might have been consecutively running.  I believe part of this drive and desire for consistency is rooted in our hunger for improvement.  It is natural.  But what does the holistic distance runner look to improve MOST?  Certainly our running efficiency, yes... but more-so and more honorably, OUR HUMANITY.  Ego aside.  

Sure, we have our devotions to distance running and they are ardent and thorough, but while employing all the means needed to deliver us again and again to the trail and road, we also concede to the revolution of our own humanity.  We all should remember the words of the late Dr. George Sheehan, "Running has made this new me.  Taken the raw material and honed it and delivered it back ready to do the work of a human being".  Indeed!  His book Running and Being was a first in the exploration of holistic aspects in distance running!  We need not let that go!

There is a fantastic quality I look to encourage in distance runners as often as possible... their independent, consistent pressure 'to liberate themselves rather than humanity'.  That is their non-need to change others!  With the consistency we love and desire, in covering miles on foot, we are usually also in pursuit of the continual internal revolution which is inseparable from such efforts.  Distance running is indeed a type of sacrifice, often such a COMPLETE sacrifice, and our desire to improve life for ourselves and for others, often begins with THIS sacrifice!  And it is as simple as one foot in front of the other!  Cheers HD Runners!  

GOING OUT STRONG

Choosing that time; and they come to us here and there; when you purpose to go out strong even when you know that everything is not perfect.  ‘Never-the-less, seeing the glory and the danger alike’, you head out to place yourself in the balance of running distance one more time.

On any given day we will have a litany of “slights” to confront the reality of every starting point.  It could be an ache here, or a pain there, even the question of an old injury or the possibility of something new hiding just beneath the surface of our love.  Expectantly so, our adjustments forward into something for ourselves better and stronger do come with discomfort and danger.

It is in this reality we must hold to our own guiding vision.  What have we desired our distance running expression to be?  It is this dream (if you want to call it this) which will provide guiding strength to lead our distance efforts.  The realities of our immediate condition (some aches, some pains and discomfort) cannot be allowed to lead our ambition.  Vision is our leading force every time out!

Also… laying ourselves out on top of doubts and discomfort… waiting many times to see if they will melt away … happens with our belief.  It is our vision leading our realities which provides a foundation to our faith.  Faith gives us the expectation to begin moving forward one more time.  We “believe” as a result of our vision, and with prudent respect to our limitations, we dance forward.

Then… somewhere in this balance wisdom drifts into clarity.  It is wisdom which provides a safety line of restraint moving forward.  Do not choose too much ~ do not accept too little.  We choose to believe in our vision before the common realities… we accept the truth of our frailty and adjust for resilience… what a fine balance we keep!

With the reality faced each time forward… looking at the glory and danger alike… there remains one thing left for us to do: TAKE ACTION!  Confidence on moving forward does join hands with these factors… understanding our present reality, embracing our vision, choosing our belief, appropriating wisdom and then employing the action!  WE CAN! 

APPROPRIATING ADVERSITY

Adversity always promises to visit our distance running efforts.  One might well say that we have a portion of adversity which indeed is our destiny.  With this truth, if we are going to move forward with the happiness and with the satisfaction we need, we need to learn daily how to actually appropriate the adversity which promises to arise.  Therefore, accepting the realities of differing adversity is the beginning point to appropriating them successfully.  When adversity is resisted and not accepted as natural and normal, confusion and stagnation follow close behind.  Unfortunately, inactive people have usually succumbed to resisting the natural reality of discomfort and adversity.   

Adversity in our running (ever so regular!) is not something to resist and hide from... but rather to appropriate.  Once we find the right “place” for the adversity that comes; once we find a way to embrace the pain and discomfort (NOT natural!); adversity will simply be something appropriated, accepted and handled.  Adversity does not need to be something we shrink and frown about.  Discomfort is as natural as the land we run… as regular as the air we breathe!

The question now remains, “How do we appropriate adversity when pressed, when crushed and when facing adversity’s despair?”  We have to admit that adversity does have its effect on the emotions and our Will providing every opportunity to quit to release ourselves from it.  However, finding a way to release the body from pain and discomfort does nothing to relieve our quest for accomplishment.  The latter is usually worth a very, very great deal.  Therefore appropriating adversity will provide many opportunities to be deceived into thinking there is some easy way out in stopping or quitting. {Here it is important to consider the real limitations from serious physiological injury which SHOULD be heeded; limitations in the body which very possibly could cripple or cause death.} 

Only through regular exposure and the opportunity to face pressure from discomfort, from the crushing of emotional wellness and even the despair of hope, can one possibly become strong ASIDE from adversity.  Being strong aside from adversity IS appropriating adversity!  The key is not about accepting adversity without limits, but rather finding the best ways to adapt and adjust to adversity’s reality. 

Hardship in distance running is something which belongs here.  Adversity should be accepted, expected and never be a surprise.  Its strength can be limited with intelligence and good planning.  We actually do have a place for adversity… we build strength for it and with it.  If adversity has a welcome place within us, we find more and more gracious ways to appropriate it.  With humility being adversity’s welcome, adversity looses the strength of its power over us.  Good running distance people!

CREATIVE ALTERATIONS

It is impossible for us to wake up and not begin to think creatively… we have actually been designed FOR constant creativity and improvement.  Distance running is an active expression of this creativity.  A brief look at the history of humanity and it is clearly seen… CREATIVITY --without dispute.  How many uncountable and untold ways we have altered and improved! 

The only interference, and sadly sometimes bringing a worsening human condition, follows when a person chooses; through time and redundancy; to draw up unnaturally.  They have then chosen to stop with their own inspiration, dreams and vision.  They have ceased from their own ideas and subsequently have no physical expression which carries creative and unique fruit.  How unnatural it is to live after another man’s vision!  How natural it is to daily seek creative alterations to our own lives!  The avid distance runner is usually doing something of the sort!    

When a runner heads out the door thinking about their own passions; not just for running, yet for life all-together; they have numerous possibilities for creative alterations.  Their life there opens clearly to the spirit, mind and body.  Each effort in distance running is an open invitation to a creative alteration of any man or woman.  When efforts are approached with the conviction that the expression will be as it always is, or that one might do it as they have always done it, there is no growth or life.  Without creative alterations expected in the efforts we make, growth is severely limited if not stopped all together.

So, what does the lure of creative alteration provide for the distance runner?  Proceeding forward, we all move into our efforts… all efforts respectively different from one another.  They are all, however, abundant, demanding and requiring immediate and strong creative choice repeatedly.  Our creative choice in every efforts moment will not necessarily be as it has been before, but always subtly differing.  Sure, some efforts in running will seem so similar, yet they are never about pin-pointing and defining the experience… yet about the beauty of the effort itself.  A creative alteration has inevitably taken place!

THE FOUNDATIONS

Distance running maturity is established on a foundation.  The following words have played a great part in the strength and foundation of holistic distance running…

We should always be ready to change our heart and our mind with respects to the things in our running which just do not work.  If certain aspects are not bearing fruit with the efforts we are investing, and possibly even hurting our desire, then we should have the constitution to turn from them… to change.

Without faith in our distance running, devotion and consistency cannot happen.  That is, without a regular, confident expectation of goodness and gain, the efforts we make will soon be lost to trial, negativity and complacency.  FAITH!

To take up a new running lifestyle, there needs to be a burial; a death if you will; of the “lifestyle” we once had.  From unproductive to productive; from inactive to active; and from unfruitful to fruitful.  There should be a clear division between the two lifestyles so that we can indeed move forward!

It might seem commonplace, yet as distance runners we should have a regular practice of placing our efforts into action.  Every “effort” is a sacred offering to be accepted and learned from.  We need resolve in putting our full strength into each day’s opportunity.

We should expect regular restoration of our “person”.  It should be common to have the experience of complete restoration in the running effort… that we should feel the clearing of our spirit, mind and body tangibly.  We should experience the repeated restoration of all parts we contribute into the whole expression of us… running should be a spiritual experience. 

Finally, we need to concede to our “design” as human beings.  That we are fragile, yet resilient.  That we respond predictably, yet require intelligent direction.  And that natural mobility calls every one of us.             

The Instant Runner

I do not think one can simply desire to be spontaneous in life. Spontaneity comes through and to the inspired life. For many years up to this date I have believed that the greatest aspect of a distance runner’s strength is inspiration...

The demands of running; serious distance running; requires a passionate pursuit. Passion does not flow through the uninspired. We have so many incredible examples of passion which has gone before us!  Even the evil and cruel, through the ages, have been inspired to be so passionately. It is ONLY the inspired who are passionate. Good or bad it takes inspiration to live passionately.  The "will' to BE inspired is a different thing. 

Therefore if there is any desire to run distances within you, this "desire" should be fed daily with contemplations of things that inspire the runner! Our system of thought should embrace this desire.  The 'instant distance runner' is always instantly inspired to run... to take to the roads and trails and cover miles! There is some part of their inner constitution which needs motion. They have been inspired of their very nature.  Their will is secure.   

Before or in between running seasons this runner is calculated and ready for any good or open door. The runner is inspired in an instant to move out and cover miles. The instant runner does not wait for perfect feelings or conditions. They operate above and beyond the normal ideals of modern man. The matter of running to the instant runner is an expression of their life force. For this they are instantly ready... NOW!

The only acception is when in recovery!  And we must NEEDS recover!  When the tab has been paid, and the runners lot has been cast, then the instant runner waits again... waits into renewal and new life to return.  Renewal is a beautiful thing!  Cheers always, HD Runners!

UNACCOMPLISHED GOALS

How we all have some kind of intimate experience with unaccomplished goals!  We have dreams we have had to accomplish something either in our distance running or in life all together.  Here are some great thoughts about this reality!

It seems that every accomplished holistic distance runner also has their share of stories about facing unaccomplished goals.  Every distance runner with an experience with in-accomplishment within the year!  Within the very process of covering miles on foot lends to a series of goals; private, social and even sub-conscious goals within the runner.  Even in meeting goals not accomplished there is not much to dissuade their passion, for the greatest satisfaction of the holistic distance runner is to run in itself. 

However, somewhere seated below the spiritual strength and satisfactions of a run, in every journey we must manage our intellect and our bodies.  These two usually glean strongest off meeting and accomplishing goals.  Aside from the time spent on the road or trail there is also the regular confrontation with distances.   Time spent running and the distance covered also provide the sensation of accomplishment, yet both also are notorious for misleading a runner.  This is the reason every mature distance runner has a ready story about their experience with an unaccomplished goal.

In the runners consciousness there in nothing strange about this reality… this daily confrontation.  Whether running one mile or one-hundred miles, the holistic distance runner embraces the obstacles and demands.  They face the possibilities of every run with vigilance and patience.  No matter what, you can be sure that in every distance they have also faced the confrontation of not accomplishing all they set out to do… then living and adjusting themselves to this reality.  Cheers and be well!

THE PEOPLE'S DRUMS

Surely we have been designed for the sacred… first, abundance within.  We CANNOT be “large” when divided out in commonality.  We are rich in the abundance of intimacy with limits to the quantity we share.  The sacred resists commonplace… the precious is precious BECAUSE it is rare.  Now… what would one say their life is of this?  What is the consistency of your relationships?  Do you have the sacred? 

We always look for focus points in/for distance running.  One of the greatest things I have found that I can do for myself in a run is to ask myself, “What is the strongest and most predominant sound I can hear right now out running?”  If it is pre-dawn, here it is usually the crickets… but then I often run in the mid-morning where it becomes the birds.  Both of which I have often found myself completely overlooking... un-acknowledging.  And I wonder to myself just what is my life all about?  There should be a purity about these things.  I know it is about His design of LIFE and His appreciations.  Then as another sound seems to match in penetration... it is the every ready foot-plants... one after another... the soft tread of rubber popping away down the asphalt. 

Thinking naturally of anthropology... foot plants reminding me of indigenous people groups and their tribal use of drums.  Especially those peoples of the Americas.  They begin soft, pulsing drums to start ceremony.  They send off runners… messengers if you will… out into the wilderness and to simply run out hearing the rhythm of the drums.  Then sometime after… the runner running… the drums keeping tempo so far away until the runner faintly hears them any longer.  Then the runner will turn for home.  Returning to the slow increased volume of their people’s drums… returning to waiting people who desire to hear the message they have brought from the wilderness.  THAT is beauty and culture! 

In thoughts and understandings it has been my hope to illuminate Holistic Distance Running to a post-modern people!  How so many need such simplicity!  There is a foundation in such efforts and in such relationships to discover ones own humanity.  To become more ennobled… a beautiful man, or beautiful woman.  Most of all, to discover better ways of sharing yourself with another person.  Because sharing your-self with another person is the essence of LIFE!  Cheers! 

THE KINGDOM OF CRICKETS

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you have imagined." 

--H. D. Thoreau

There are many things we experience which are intangible to touch and to feel if one does not pass through them for themselves and with absolute reality.  These are things which change something within and you cannot share “this” change.  It is yours alone.  But since sharing is what we live for, and what we are best designed for, you can share somewhat of what they are... 

For example, I went out into the Kingdom of Crickets throughout this past week running in Maryland!  I had the delight of a grand symphony, and was daily greeted by the Little Masters of their music rolling through the stillness of the pre-dawn air with penetrating consistency!  They were the Masters there.  I then saw & experienced another intangible as for properly “sharing” with words alone.  The soft, rhythmic pulsing of fireflies had been happening without my notice.  Their beauty is there for a moment… placed drifting in their travels… spontaneous and direct they shout silent life.  When I say that the soft, blowing breeze was nice it does not speak of its full force… of how it drifts in unseen and wraps around you in 85% humidity, then lifts you up and restores your soul!   

These are intangible things one must go out to meet and tastes them not within closed walls. To enjoy one must make an effort in finding the place where bravery leads.  There, in quietness & solitude, discoveries are made daily. 

The beauty of the soft, plodding rhythm of a distance runners foot plants.  There you understand why tribal and indigenous people of the world have times where for hours they play drums… full of energy, softly, rhythmic, strong.  Rolling, rolling, rolling… they call the soul.  How many would really come to know that out there foot plants moving forward… dancing gently… are the expression and joy of their beating heart?   Out there in the Kingdom of Crickets sifting after the intangibles.  Now Go! 

Demand Nothing, Expect Everything

With all our demands and all our expectations as human beings, we must pause and think as runners... we face a paradox.  As varied as the possibilities of human anatomy and physiology, is as varied the outcome of any and all distance runs.  It is therefore neither wise or prudent to predict the outcome of ANY distance effort.  Relaxing into effort and adversity is not the natural order of any human being, but it is the solution.  Therefore it is good to consider and take to heart the way we feel when we head out to the open road or to the switching trail.  Run out taking to heart the past efforts we have recently made.  Flow out softly making the right considerations of environment and challenge, but yet just as equally -- disregard what our natural make-up would demand of us.  Disregard what we might assume of ego and ability that the run is going to be, or what the run is suppose to be.  We can open our hearts with broadness to whatever our heart NEEDS each long distance run to be.  This freedom is available to every long distance runner, that choice is liberty.  Leaving once again and demanding nothing ~ returning once again and expecting everything!  LIVE STRONG, RUN Strong! 

Summer Roads, Winter Trails!

It has just become clear that through multiplied thousands of miles I have covered; through the roads and trails of southeastern North Carolina; that a pattern has developed!  The summers have turned out for the open road and for miles of farm country and open air, while the winters have lent themselves to the trails and secluded woods.  Today I have better understood the real cause to this trend.

Let’s begin with summer roads.  Usually when I have been running consistently, the adaptations to the heat index and humidity of the south makes the challenge of the open road in summer surprisingly pleasurable.  The heat of the open road becomes a huge sense of accomplishment where many fear to travel.  Having said this, the open roads of North Carolina are beautiful, yes… yet they are often the only place most bearable with respects to BUGS!!!  Yes, insects that bite and pester are resident here!   Heading up the list are deerflies, horseflies (elephant flies!), mosquitoes and 10,000’s of nats… they mostly keep themselves to the shelter of the woods and trails. 

The summer roads are also free from North Carolina’s plethora of skin tearing briers, poison ivy, poison oak and tics!  MMmmm… the distance runner’s obstacles!  Instinctively, I have therefore gravitated to the open roads regardless of the extreme heat and use the opportunity for conditioning and change.  Besides, through the summer feet killing roots, rocks and holes become hidden in overgrowth!  Who is willing to purposely risk injury??  It’s the open road for me! 

With regards to the winter trails?  I have figured that no matter what, in the winter it is going to be fairly cold. (Side note: Having grown up in Up-State New York, I know this statement of “cold” is relative!!)  Annually I accept the cold and do not restrict or draw back from time on my feet covering miles.  However, all the obstacles of the trail, which I mentioned, change so much here in this region without the hazard of any significant snow, ice or wintery mix!  AAhhh… North Carolina!  The open road through this time can actually be far more hazardous.  Have you ever wondered how people in NC drive in winter weather?  THEY DON”T DO IT WELL!  So!  Through the fall and winter everything opens up in the woods and trails… by-ways and paths actually become open and clear for detailed travel on-foot!  So, I do slow my pace for the different kind of dance associated with trail running and woods, yet ‘not-with-standing, go out to meet it’!!

These are my two seasons of running which I have known, yet only today have become clearer!  Run strong, run true! 

We LOVE Repitition!

Especially runners, yet every human loves repeating things!   When you stop to think about it, all sorts of things and with all sorts of reasons and all sorts of emotion!  Wow!  Really, we are a species which are devoted to repetition and to motion!  After the daily tasks and the basic repeating items of utilitarian nature; such as drinking, eating, hygiene, domestics and work; we indeed repeat ourselves and if we are creative we have found ways of living and repeating which remain vibrant and exciting!  Here is where the distance runner steps in with their efforts and expressions!

Part of the holistic reason for our distance running is our instinct and yearning for repetition… we thrill to it and we do love it. {And I need not mention human sexuality yet!}  It seems to me that we who are creatures of repetition, with respects to distance running, have chosen to amplify our outward display of passion and affection for repetition.  Although repetition surrounds and represents the life of every human, we who cover mile and run distances have chosen to lay ourselves time and again on the crucible of repetition.  The very expression of distance running fuels our inspiration for good cause. 

We have indeed been designed for motion… specifically speaking motion which is a collection of repetition!  It is really wonderful when you think about it more closely.  We begin in the sweetest softest motion within the womb of our mothers… experiencing the smooth swaying of motion which sets our instinct to try to retrieve throughout our lives! {Of course we were even brought about by such ridiculously wonderful motion and repetition too!}   

So!  Forward we have ventured into a life totally surrounded by marvelous repetition!  We play we work we dance we sing… we live and we love to the balance of good repetitions.  We take for granted the reality that we are specifically creature of motion and rightfully seek motion and repetition to calm our spirits and inspire our minds.  Here is another great holistic aspect of distance running!! 

We runners hold to soft ritual and great care.  Just look at the repeating cycles of our own distance running… of our desire and affection for it… of the repeating cycles of love and sometimes even dread.  The facets are there and the facets are all inevitably repeating.  And clearly, how we love repetition!

Melting Into Ice!

After stringing together days of 14M, 16.5M, 6.7M and 7.3M, I have found a good indicator of caution and fair warning to what a distance runner can take.  I call it “Melting Into Ice”.  The phenomena is expected, yet it is also a warning.  It is that period in the heat and through the humidity where your system begins to melt into an “icy” condition and where for no natural external reason, everything seems cold.  

The paradox here that exists in the life of a holistic distance runner (HDR) is that this place where in sheer sweat and heat you begin to melt into ice is not of bravado or show.  It is a reality and can be used as a fair warning and directive to shelter or the end of a running effort.  Our conditioning in distance running and heat exposure can either shorten or prolong our ability to endure and perform in extreme environments.  

Commonly the HDR thrives on the challenges of extremes, and for the birth of our spiritual nourishment, we often go out to face our challenge.  It does not matter if it is heat or cold... or wet or dry, we go out to meet it.  However, since it is current to many of us during these months, "melting into ice" has been worth a mention to keep us all safe.

Sure, when developing the ability to perform in the heat and humidity... when working to endure heat index... it will be common to melt into ice, yet WITH GREAT CAUTIONARY MEASURE!  That is I would NOT advocate this practice for anyone... that is to confront that time where your system reaches the edge out in the middle of know-where.  Where little decisions of pace and hydration make a world of difference on the quality of your life from that point forward.   

BUT!!  "MY" caution point is when I begin to melt into ice... then I adjust and turn for home!!           

Still Catching Glass!!

THE GLASS CATCHER!!  I have been a Glass Catcher for well over a year now!  Here is a great idea that came to me at that time!  What a great hobby for any distance runner!  What exactly is Catching Glass??  Well let me share a couple ground rules & tips which help me…

1.       Catching Glass is finding little unique pieces of glass, very much like “Beach Glass”, but on the roads!
2.       As you can see in the image above, they all fill their own place in the beauty and fun of it.
3.       I do have criteria about the pieces I find!!!
4.       I always look for glass not much larger than a quarter, but preferably thick, worn and old.  Since we distance runners place ourselves out into the air to be tried and "pressed"... finding pieces like this speak of the facets of us running!   
5.       It has been very rare to ever come back without catching anything, but if I do strike out, I do not waste any time over it!  Days when I find quite a few pieces make up for it! 
6.       AGAIN… NO NEW GLASS!!!  (The history behind a piece of glass is part of the beauty of the collection!  Just think of all the stories behind each piece!)
7.       I average about 2-5 pieces a run.  NEVER touch plastic! 
8.       As for colors… around this area (Rural NC!) green and clear are common… older glass is tinted (very nice!)… and red, orange and blue glass are VERY RARE! {I still have not found ONE piece of orange!}
 
Catching Glass is something great to look forward to in addition to regular runs... good for meditation and hope.  Now I think of better and “best” containers to display it all!  Besides, all the colorful, unique glass speaks of so many great runs!!  Now when you look at all your little pieces building daily... there is a tangible display of the history of your own running life!  Cheers!

Unchangeable Joy!

It has been a while since the last post, yet certainly this has not been because I lacked any ideas to write about!  I have never had a better heart to distance running… never broader or deeper or more serving to the many needs which regularly drift through my consciousness as a human being.  If you run distance… rather if you have some love of being Nomadic within and without… then it is my only hope that distance running is fitting into a winning place within your soul.  There is an unchangeable joy in the ardent quality of it! 

I find myself regularly pressing the issue with staying true to running holistically.  Today I found the revelation of the "opportunity to run” (that is running when the opportunity best suites) having a far better place within, than running after a specific effort… or demanding certain "mileage" or "pace rate".  Remarkably recovery happens regularly!  This staying true to pre & post run diet needs, hydration, rest/sleep, eating fairly right and training intensity need.  Of course all these ‘distance running issues’ happen so much better with an open heart and mind!  

Here is another perspective, for running wild merits us better perspectives daily!  I realized that I spent 4,701 seconds running yesterday morning.  To me a simple average time to run… an effort to suite the human soul.  I also wondered what the possible condition could be of the human soul which does no work or has no labor.  I could not imagine the condition of the heart and mind which resists the very design of their humanity.  What really happens to the soul which resists themselves in inactivity? 

Certainly we all know the physical ramifications of inactivity, but what liberation of mind… what lifting of the spirit is also missed!  So, can you tell me just how many second this day you ran wild and gave your soul to the efforts of your humanity??  As many of us know, there comes so much good of it!    

“In wildness is the preservation of the world.”  ~ H.D. Thoreau      

A "Substance" Called LOVE

One would think that loving someone would be the grandest and most beautiful thing in the world. It is, BUT, loving someone is also the hardest, most self-effacing and ardent things given us.  Especially if you REALLY love a person.  Loving a human cannot be rightly assumed a shallow, simple thing or without substance.  Human beings, in their very nature, release an eternal substance with their "person" and be it either love or hate... this "substance" shared does last forever.  Certainly the emotional pull and squeeze of such a 'substance of LOVE' is strongest when we are closest to it, or even closest removed from it, but like all things in shared relationships... TIME does very strange things to us.  

Loving someone also seems to come as a very divided thing.  That is, the quantities are balanced... divided and delineated.  There would be no one truthful who could say that they love "everyone" the same.  For of nature there is a specific quality of love shared with very exact measure to all we cross paths with.  LOVE is diverse and without limits in its nature and appropriation.  LOVE is a pure substance; whether we love much or we love little. 
Sometimes the MUCH is so right, and sometimes the MUCH is far too much!  While sometimes the LITTLE is so right and sometimes the LITTLE is far too little!  We must survey the substance we share and give it in all respects passionately.

As for the few we overflowingly LOVE... how rare, how capturing, how needful!!  Here the "substance" within our soul bubbles up and over our ability to rationalize it... and often our ability to contain the emotion of it below some safe and dignified surface.  But this... the wealth and the height of all our loves, is the LOVE which most matters, which most changes, which most inspires!
 
Like the magnificent mountain above, high and dignified, overflowing LOVE makes its own place in our emotion.  How do we determine who merits this?  How do we guide and direct such a strength?  LOVE; like LIFE; is not some tidy thing which a box doth keep... but a coursing force replenishing.  LOVE; like the sea... swelling, coursing, cresting... LOVE deep, full, crashing.  You see, if LOVE be not this, then it is not LOVE. 

Something Supernatural!

Yes, “something”, because it is expectantly infeasible to define what is actually “supernatural”!  But something supernatural did indeed happen on my run today.  It was one of those days where you are REALLY on the edge between taking a day off after running for six days straight.  BUT, the “days” were easy days, and they were soft.  They were ALL runs of 6-8 miles and with absolute respect to recovery from a pulled arch last month.  They were awkward, yes... tight to rehabilitating, yes.   But it is time to get flowing again!  {I will add that although this may seem like a lot of running for some, I am well used to 60-70 miles a week.}

TODAY the heart within me lead me into the wilderness once again after waking and floating through a morning of speculation over all sorts of tight, awkward feelings through my feet.  (Have you been there??)  My objective was to softly flow and cover the earth, while pressing no issue.  To be brave and to feel it out... to face the possibilities for desire and for the passion of the motion in covering miles in the rustling breeze and sunshine!  My premise holistically was to go and BELIEVE.

What is supernatural (as I believe many of you have touched upon yourselves!), is that I feel 100 times better now… after the run… throughout all parts, then I did before the run!!  I cannot explain this, and I am NOT speaking about any “runners high” or “endorphins”!  (THAT is overrated.)  I went through the distance and faced the doubt.  I stood the line, and was delivered again to better motion, better balance and seemingly all things better!  There is healing in the right motion... if we can find the "right" motion!!  Something supernatural is involved in that!  Have you been there??  What is YOUR story?  The best quote for this…

“The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.”  ~ Thucydides    

How Can We KEEP Clarity?!!? Wow!!

Immediately speaking the context to the title is this: in any given subject, it now takes a matter of minutes (sometimes seconds!) to be immediately overwhelmed by the vast quantity of information, personalities, input and feedback possible!!  If a person is not weary, soon they will inevitably be washed into the sea of digital vastness and the burden of too many people, too many things or too many Blogs they sincerely desire to follow.  But as we all know -- too quickly TOO MANY!!  HHhmmm...   

The question I have been facing is: "How can we keep clarity?"  How can we exist and daily make things in our lives and things we share MORE and not less?  Can we move in the direction, through intention and priority, to better quality and clarity... not simply trying for more quantity and inevitably less clarity?  I have actually started to write more for THIS reason!  To find the best way to balance and possibly share with others who have also wondered!

Certainly, there might be some kind of thrill in seeing "friends" build up, in increased "followers", and even in finding yet another Blog to TRY to follow!!  CERTIANLY -- but have we balanced this reality aside the simplicity & virtue of distance running and its essence?

It stands to reason that the essence of most all our distance running is the solitary effort.  Although solitude it good for any soul, it is not the best place for any soul to stay.  As we all know, it is motion which sets us free!  The holistic distance runner is someone who is after the balance of their social and even anthropological life expression.  Which is just a fancy way to say, they are interested in more than a digital record of an idea as to who they think they know.  

If anything, the heart of a holistic distance runner desires to know what they experience and where it goes in the circle of their lives.  Even when things compound, get jumbled and the "lists" build so fast!  The HDR yearns for the essence of others expression in their lives - especially other distance runners, yet usually does not have many at all close to them physically.  They run and cover distance and become more human with every effort... and with this alone... gain more clarity in their life! 

I challenge all to follow their heart.  To clarify and prioritize.  Yes -- prioritize people, prioritize time, prioritize efforts and expressions!  There is a better clarity for all!  Run Well, Live Well!